Sales Awards Blog

Capturing moments through the art of photography can be powerful when done right. C.Mae Design is an eight person photography team based out of Wisconsin who believes photography boils down to light, laughter, trust, and the power of capturing the connection between individuals. Their business has doubled in sales every year since 2013, and they are delighted to have captured over 437,000 smiles since C.Mae Design’s opening. In the 2017 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service C.Mae won the Bronze Stevie Award for Sales Turnaround.

Keeping Good Company

The company likes to accept clients who cherish other people in their lives, and customers who want to capture the beauty in real moments. Cassandra Spiegelhoff, owner of C.Mae Design describes their ideal customer.

“The C.Mae Design client is someone who cherishes the people in their lives. Someone who finds beauty in real moments that include tears of joy, warm hugs, and loud laughter.”

With their team of 8 photographers and 2 office assistants, many of their photographers do double duty as editors, teachers and mentors. Coming into their 5th year of business, Cassandra expresses their excitement about celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary with 500 couples.

“We are obsessed with finding and creating beautiful light and turning sweet moments into stunning imagery”

Chasing Moments

Photography is always changing. The editing styles, posing styles, new innovative techniques, and the evolving technology always makes for improvement. C.Mae Design staff enjoy doing what they love and are always learning how to service their clients better.

“At our sessions, you will find us playing music, laughing, lifting things, and maybe even climbing trees or jumping into water for the perfect shot.” Cassandra relayed, “Each session really is a new adventure with new friends and we can’t wait for you to be part of the experience.”

As passionate storytellers and don’t-care-who’s-watching dancers, what they ask of you is to fully, authentically, and awkwardly just be yourself. This is where the magic is. At C.Mae Design, they focus heavily on capturing you. THE REAL YOU. The real, funny, gorgeous you.

Awards Capture Moments Too

Like photos, awards can signify a moment in time when your hard work was cherished by your peers. Cassandra recalls the time their supervisor had recommended them to apply to the Stevie Awards, and then they won.

“We are so excited to show it off! The acknowledgment of our organization and staff is wonderful and uplifting!!”

Since then, they’ve also been awarded Best Of Weddings on The Knot in 2016 and Couples' Choice Awards from Wedding Wire in both 2016 and 2017.

“We simply believe in what we do and enjoy it! We are motivated by spreading the love! The truth is that life is hard and any time you can devote to appreciate the people in your life is beautiful. Our photography sessions highlight the love shared between individuals and their stories. What is more beautiful than that?” Cassandra concluded, “Always do your best! The golden rule of ‘treat others how you would like to be treated’ is great. We like using the platinum rule of ‘treat others the way they want to be treated.’"

WePay won a Gold Stevie Award in the 2016 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service in the Sales Distinction of the Year - Financial Services category. The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's premier awards for sales, customer service, contact center, and business developement professionals. Interested in applying for the 2017 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service? The final entry deadline is January 11.

What is your role in the organization? I'm responsible for Sales operations at WePay. My vision for my team is to be a strategic partner to Sales and an enabler of the Sales organization's success. Everything we do makes other's work easier, more efficient and highly effective. We do all of this in order to close more deals, retain loyal customers and drive quality revenue for the company.

What is the organizational vision?

WePay's vision is to help the platform economy understand, value and realize the impact of integrated payments to fuel their customers' growth and change lives. We are their trusted advisor to guide them through their payments journey and we provide them with industry leading customer service and fraud risk protection that is unmatched in the industry.

What sets your company apart in this category?

WePay is a trusted partner for making payments seamless, simple and safe. We create a frictionless payments experience secured by our industry-leading risk technology. Furthermore, WePay provides one of the industry's best customer service offering which has been valued highly by our customers and partners and is one of the reasons why our customer retention is extremely high.

How did you first become acquainted with the Stevies? I learned about the Stevie awards when I was at Cisco. During that time, some of the best vendors I worked with had won Stevie awards. The organization I was part of, Cisco's Global Virtual Sales Organization (a team of 1800 remote sales and engineering resources) was the fastest growing sales team in the company with many industry-leading innovations and best practices. So, I submitted them for the Stevie Awards and they have since won every year.

What was it like for WePay to win this award?

The award is a testament to the value that WePay's customer service organization offers day in and day out. The award validates why our customers and partners consistently stay with us and even come back to us despite the many other options available. It also solidified the work that WePay had done the previous year to turn the Sales organization around and the resulting impact it has had on the business.

How has the win affected the business? The Stevie Award is among several other awards that WePay has won over the past year. It is one more validation to our new hires that this is a great company to work for, that our customer service team stands above our competition and that we have a great Sales & Marketing organization that is making a difference for the company. It is also one more proof point to our customers and partners that WePay is a solid company that they can rely on.

What results have been gained since you've won this award? From Stevie award trophies lining our lobby walls to press releases recognizing our achievements - they certainly enhance our brand as a credible and award-winning company. What inspires you to continue your work? Our Sales and Marketing organization is always looking for ways to enhance the business of our partners through our payments solution. We are continuously evolving to become the best in our class. It's an exciting journey to be at the forefront of helping our company achieve its goal of being the number one payments partner to platform companies.

We are always looking for ways to become bigger, better and faster. We expect to continue to innovate and improve what we do and how we do things so that we can enhance the lives of our customers and partners.